Greek Mythology - Aphrodite

Aphrodite is one of the most famous figures of Greek mythology, because Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexual rapture. She was desired by nearly all of the Greek gods. Aphrodite was one of the twelve main gods on Mt. Olympus, and she was the most powerful goddess when it came to members of the opposite sex. There are many origins to Aphrodite's birth. Some of them are: She arose full-grown out of the foam of the sea, She is the daughter of Zeus and Dionne, She is the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, which would make her a Titaness, or She is the daughter of Titans Oceanus and Tethys, making her an Oceanid. (Dittus 34-35) "The most common origin of her birth is her being foam-born, which is what her name means" (Parin 45). This origin says that Aphrodite arose nude and full-grown out of the foam of the sea and riding into the shore of Cythera on a scallop shell. She found Cythera to be too small of an island, so she went to live in Paphos, in Cyprus, which is still the principal seat of her worship.

Although Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, she had a magic girdle that she wore that made everyone fall in love with her. She could hardly ever be persuaded to lend it to anyone. Since Aphrodite had the magic girdle and was so beautiful, all of the gods fell in love with her. All of the goddesses were jealous of Aphrodite because all of the gods loved her instead of the other goddesses. Because of this, Zeus arranged a marriage for her with Hephaestus, the lame smith-god.

Aphrodite, already regretting the trouble she had caused, took Adonis, and put him in a chest. She gave the chest to Persephone, asking her to hide it in a dark place. Persephone couldn't stand not knowing what was inside the chest, so she opened the chest and found Adonis. Persephone found Adonis to be a very cute baby, so she took hi into her own palace to raise him. Aphrodite did not find out about this until Adonis was a grown man. When she did find out about this though, she immediately went to Persephone's palace to claim Adonis. Persephone would not give him back to Aphrodite though, because she had made him her lover. Persephone appealed to Zeus, but Zeus knew that Aphrodite wanted to have him as her own lover. He refused to settle this case and transferred it to a lower court. The court's verdict was that Persephone and Aphrodite should get equal claims to Adonis, since Aphrodite arranged his birth and Persephone rescued him from the chest. They also decided that Adonis should get some time to without these goddesses in his life, so they divided a year up into three equal parts:

Four months with Persephone, Four months with Aphrodite

Four months to be with whomever he wanted to be with.

Although this is what the court ruled, Aphrodite wore her magic girdle and persuaded Adonis to let her not only her time with him, and she persuaded him to let her have his time to himself to be with him. (Parin 36)

Persephone did not agree with this at all. She went to Ares and told him how angry she was. Ares got jealous of Persephone's true love for Adonis, so he disguised him self as a wild boar and killed Adonis right in front of Aphrodite. Aphrodite had two children. She had a son, Golgas, who was the founder of the Cyprian Golgi. She also had a daughter, Beroe, who was the founder of Beroea in Thrace. Some also say that, instead of Dionysus, Adonis was the father of her son Priapus.

One day, high on Mount Olympus, a wedding was taking place. A sea goddess, Thetis, was marrying a mortal king. All of Olympus was in attendance, except for Eris, who was not invited. Eris was furious at being excluded and decided to throw her golden apple at the place of the wedding. The golden apple of Eris, however, was not a golden apple of love, like those of other goddesses, but one of discord. A fight or argument always broke out when it was thrown at a group of people.

The apple had the words "For the fairest of all" printed on it, so naturally, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all wanted to claim it as their own. Zeus put an end to their quarrel by asking Hermes to bring them to the field of Paris, a Trojan shepherd who was the most handsome man in Greece. He was asked to decide which of the three goddesses was the most beautiful. When he could not decide, the goddesses started to bribe Paris, so that he would decide in their favor. Hera offered him all of Asia as his kingdom, Athena the wisdom and strategy to defeat Greece, and Aphrodite offered the most beautiful woman in world. Paris decided to award the golden apple to Aphrodite.

The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen of Sparta (Sparta is in Greece). But she had a husband! A man named Menalaus was married to her. But Aphrodite had to keep her promise, so she helped Paris